Audio microphones are commonly used in a variety of consumer applications such as cellular telephones, digital audio recorders, personal computers and teleconferencing systems. In particular, lower-cost electret condenser microphones (ECM) are used in mass produced cost sensitive applications. An ECM microphone typically includes a film of electret material that is mounted in a small package having a sound port and electrical output terminals. The electret material is adhered to a diaphragm or makes up the diaphragm itself. Most ECM microphones also include a preamplifier that can be interfaced to an audio front-end amplifier within a target application such as a cell phone. Another type of microphone is a microelectro-mechanical Systems (MEMS) microphone, which can be implemented as a pressure sensitive diaphragm is etched directly onto an integrated circuit.
Environmental sound pressure levels span a very large dynamic range. For example, the threshold of human hearing is at about 0 dBSPL, conversational speech is at about 60 dBSPL, while the sound of a jet aircraft 50 m away is about 140 dBSPL. While the diaphragm of a microphone, such as a MEMS microphone, may be able to withstand high intensity acoustic signals and faithfully convert these high intensity acoustic signals into an electronic signal, dealing with such high-level signals poses some difficulties. For example, many amplifiers and preamplifiers for acoustic microphones are optimized for a particular dynamic range. As such, these systems may not be able to handle the full audio range without adding significant distortion.